The Stages:

Brief

After the Catalan Week, the peloton moves to the Pyrenees, in the Tarn,
the French region where Laurent Jalabert was born. For the next two
days they contest the Criterium International, a prestigious stage
race which always attracts a large field. Jalabert is using this
weekend to prepare for the Tour of the Basque Countries and commented
on that tour ahead: "This year the distance will be demanding, and
I must prepare well for it. I think the final mountain stage will
be the determining factor in the race."

The captains of the ONCE team for the French contest will be David
Etxebarria and Melchor Mauri. The stars of the Criterium will be Richard
Virenque, Laurent Dufaux and Marco Pantani who on Sunday morning will be
featuring on the climb of the Pic de Nore.

Other riders who will be worth following will be the revelation of
Catalan Stefano Garzelli, who was involved in the mountain stage to
Rasos de Peguera, and Dario Frigo, who came third on that day.

Frenchman Emmanuel Magnien, riding for La Française des Jeux,
secured his teams first victory of the season when he won the
first stage of the Critérium International over 190.5 kilometers
between Rabastens and Blaye-the-Mines.

A small group of 15 riders came to the line for the sprint and it
was Magnien who was able to regulate the proceedings. By beating
Australian Stuart O' Grady and the France's Laurent Roux, he took
the leaders jersey into the second day which comprises a hill climb
and an individual time trial.

The 26-year old Magnien turned professional in 1993, and finished
second in Milan-San Remo a week earlier

The attack came with 40 kms to go when the main peloton was
split by heavy winds and the work of La Francaise des Jeux riders
(Berzin, Magnien, Jan, Peron). Fourteen riders were able to get
away and they joined Stuart O'Grady and the Spaniard Jose Luis
Rubiera, who has already escaped. Luc Leblanc, Didier Rous and
Christophe Moreau, the Dane Bo Hamburger also placed themselves
in good position before the second day, whereas the fancied
contender for the mountain stage, Italian Marco Pantani was
dropped in the attack.

Frenchman Christophe Moreau (Festina) won the Critérium International
on Sunday after his victory in the third stage, an 8 km ITT starting
and finishing in Castres. Moreau finished on equal time with his main
rivals in the second stage, held in the morning, which involved the
peloton riding 80 kms to the summit of Pic de Nore (some 1,800 metres).
Rodolfo Massi (Casino) won that stage.

In the afternoon, in the ITT, Moreau beat American Bobby Julich (Cofidis)
by 15 seconds. The two other riders on equal time to him lost several
seconds in the ITT. They were the Italian Davide Rebellin who lost 39
seconds and the Dane Bo Hamburger 52 seconds.

On the 8 kms course, Moreau approached an average speed of 50 km/h.
Spaniard Aitor Garmendia was second at 10 seconds and countryman
Melchor Mauri was third at 15 seconds. British time trial specialist,
GAN's Chris Boardman conceded 31 seconds to Moreau, while the
Russian Evgueni Berzin lost 36 seconds.

Aged 26, Moreau turned professional in 1995. Before this victory, the
Frenchman won the 1996 Tour of Chile. Last year he worked in the Tour
for his Team leader Richard Virenque but still managed to take 6th
place in the last time trial at EuroDisney.

His only other time trial victory came at the 1996 Tour L'Avenir.

Moreau said he was confident of winning the race after the
mountain stage in the morning. He was quoted as saying that:
" I realised that I could win the race after the second
stage on Sunday morning. My manager has repeatedly said
to me that I must learn to win. Actually I made it because
the leaders of the team were absent. I was very concerned
before the time-trial and I told myself that I could not
miss such an opportunity. Today, I have had one of
the best performance of my all life. And I proved that (team)
leaders can rely on me."